A Georgia homeowner got an out-of-this-world surprise when a meteorite, estimated to be 20 million years older than Earth, tore through his roof earlier this summer.
On June 26, residents in Georgia and South Carolina reported seeing a blazing fireball streak across the daytime sky, followed by loud booms. According to NASA, the meteor exploded over Georgia before a chunk hurtled toward the ground, striking a home in McDonough like a high-speed bullet.
Scott Harris, a planetary geologist at the University of Georgia, examined 23 grams of fragments from the space rock… a piece about the size of a cherry tomato… that not only pierced the roof but also dented the floor.
“This meteor has a long and ancient journey before landing here in McDonough,” Harris said. His microscopic analysis revealed the meteorite formed 4.56 billion years ago, predating our planet’s formation.
The meteorite is believed to have originated from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, likely created from the breakup of a massive asteroid roughly 470 million years ago.
The homeowner says he’s still finding specks of cosmic dust around his living room weeks after the impact. Researchers from the University of Georgia and Arizona State University plan to officially name the space rock the McDonough Meteorite. This marks Georgia’s 27th recovered meteorite… and only the sixth ever seen falling in real time.
